A large grass fire broke out in Holyrood Park near Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh on Monday evening, sending a plume of smoke over the city.
The fire started in vegetation near the ruins of St Anthony’s Chapel, and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service was called to the scene at around 6.50pm.
The blaze came during a sunny spell in the city, where the Met Office recorded a maximum temperature of 25C. It followed a weekend in which runners in the Edinburgh Marathon were treated for heat exhaustion, with the Scottish Ambulance Service saying 16 people were taken to hospital on Sunday.
Holyrood Park is one of Edinburgh’s best-known open spaces, and a fire there draws attention quickly because of how close it sits to the heart of the city and to one of its most recognisable landmarks. For residents looking up at the smoke on Monday evening, the scene was a reminder of how fast dry conditions can turn a park into a hazard.
What matters now is how quickly crews can contain the fire and whether the dry spell that helped feed it continues into the week ahead. Edinburgh has already seen what the heat can do to people outdoors; the question is whether it now starts to test the land itself.
